Policy and Clinical Practice: Audit Tools to Measure Adherence (Report‪)‬

Introduction Hospital staff often fail to follow policies and procedures may lead to errors in patient management (Petty, 2005). Chatterjee et.al. (2004) showed adherence to written infection control policies and procedures resulted in significant improvement in sharp objects disposal, hazardous waste handling, and availability of personal protective equipment, isolation precautions, and staff knowledge regarding location of the exposure control plan. Another study measuring protocol compliance through a computer-based surveillance system that monitored evaluation form completion (Harwood, Nordin, Heibert, Weiser, Brisson, Skovron & Lewis 1997). The results showed significant change (p0.001) in physician compliance in completing a standardized examination following an administrative mandate to change.